210 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 
woman had insisted upon giving me when I 
stopped beside the fence to ask her the 
name of the bush. It was my first, but by 
no means my last, experience of the floral 
generosity of Tallahassee people. 
The next morning I woke betimes, and to 
my astonishment found the city enveloped 
in a dense fog. The hotel clerk, an old 
resident, to whom I went in my perplexity, 
was as much surprised as his questioner. 
He did not know what it could mean, he was 
sure; it was very unusual; but he thought 
it did not indicate foul weather. For a man 
so slightly acquainted with such phenomena, 
he proved to be a remarkably good prophet ; 
for though, during my fortnight’s stay, 
there must have been at least eight foggy 
mornings, every day was sunny, and not a 
drop of rain fell. 
That first bright forenoon is still a bright 
memory. For one thing, the mocking-birds 
outsang themselves till I felt, and wrote, 
that I had never heard mocking-birds be- 
fore. That they really did surpass their 
brethren of St. Augustine and Sanford 
would perhaps be too much to assert, but so 
it seemed ; and I was pleased, some months 
